Transition : Wayland | Resilience: Community

Past Event: Beekeepers Meeting on Overwintering

On Tuesday, September 20, 7-9 PM, we will meet to learn about ways to help our bees survive winter.

We’ve all been busy with our honeybees and, hopefully, honey. Now is the time of robbing (bees stealing honey from other hives) and of preparing for winter. There is a lot we can do to help our bees survive the winter, which is what our upcoming meeting is all about.

We’ll have local beekeeper Arthur Johnson speak about self-sustaining apiaries and overwintering with nucs and localized bees.

Arthur works full-time with technology but gets his spirit from nature. He has been keeping bees in all New England states except CT for 12+ years. He used to run a small commercial apiary called Woodland Apiaries which got him started in treatment free, small cell bees. His bees have been treatment free for the last 4+ years. Currently he maintains over 40 colonies in six yards, all in Wayland. He keeps mostly Russians and breeds his own queens from overwintered stock. He is looking to work with someone next year as he expands to over 100 colonies in 10 yards in the greater Boston area.

Arthur also says: “I love all aspects of beekeeping except for honey extraction.” That tells you it’s all about the bees for him!

Our local Ace affiliated hardware store, Wayland Home and Design, has graciously offered to host our meeting. The address is Wayland Town Center, 70 Andrew Ave (tel 508-358-0155). There is plenty of parking in the back. They will also have a new, large inventory of Mann Lake beekeeping equipment!